


Fateful

by merelypassingtime



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Fortune Telling, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, Other, There's A Tag For That, symbrock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18496765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merelypassingtime/pseuds/merelypassingtime
Summary: Anne and Eddie’s first date turns a bit sour when a palm reader sees a different future for them than they might want.





	Fateful

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to a number of commenters for pointing out this needed a better end and I apologize for any and all my typos. I wrote the last part too fast and in lieu of sleep. :”)

After weeks of waiting for her to work him into her schedule, Eddie got to take Anne out for their first date and hopefully not last date.

Fortune had been with him so far, as the day she’d finally set aside had coincided with the history department hosting a medieval fair, and so far they had been enjoying the various historically inaccurate activities presented by the embarrassed and apologetic history majors.

They’d just finished their turkey legs and were wander through a line of smaller booths next to the food court when Anne spotted a beautifully calligraphed sign advertising palm reading.

Excited, she said, “I've never have my palm read before! It sounds like fun!”

“I think if you get your palm read right now, they’ll only be able to tell that you just had a turkey leg,” Eddie joked.

Anne bumped into his side and stuck out her tongue at him. “Smartass. I happen to have very clean hands. Besides, it would be about my future, not the past.”

Eddie pretended to resist, even though his interest was piqued. “I dunno…”

“Why not? she coaxed, already ducking into the tent. “You afraid to have your darkest secrets revealed?”

“More like afraid to waste five bucks,” he muttered, but gamely he followed her into the tent’s dim interior.

The space was small, taken up almost entirely by a square table with three chairs, one occupied by a wizened old woman dressed in black witches robes complete with a splendid pointed hat. 

Anne sat down in one of the empty chairs across from her, five already in her hand and ready for her reading. Eddie pulled his own wallet from his bad pocket before he sat in the last chair.

The woman took Anne's proffered five solemnly and tucked it into a basket half under the table, then she said, “Let me see your hand, dear.” 

Anne stretched her hand out, palm up for inspection, and the woman peered down at it intently, asking as she looked, “And would you be wanting to hear about life in general or do you have a specific question?”

With a wink at Eddie, Anne replied, “Tell me about the love of my life.”

“Of course, that’s right here.”

Trancing a finger lightly over Anne’s palm, she squinted down, then said, “Oh. I am sorry to say it, but there's lots of strife and conflict here on your love line. It’s not going to be a smooth road, but anything in life worth having takes sacrifice and work, right? You’ll have to be patience too, but in the end you’ll find your match. Not only that, you’ll find it with a dashing, warm-hearted doctor.”

“A doctor?” Anne asked, laugher in her voice. Using her free arm, she elbowed Eddie. “You hear that? A doctor. You’re gonna have to change majors if you want a chance with me!”

She was still laughing as the woman turned towards Eddie, who offered his own five, leaving his hand on the table as the woman again put it in her basket before glancing at Eddie’s hand.

The woman did an almost comical double take, looking up at Eddie, then back to his hand in apparent surprise. 

“But this can’t be right!” she exclaimed. “You only have half a life!”

“Wh-what?” Eddie asked, really looking at the woman for the first time.

Earnestly, she met his eyes. “You are only half a person. Your entire being is looking for something, and you will never be complete until you find it.”

Her sincerity was unnerving, enough so that Eddie tried reflexively to deflect it with humor. “What? Like someone stole a kidney or something last time I was drunk and I never noticed?”

Anne snickered, but the palm reader ignored it and the joke. Instead she fished the five dollar bill Eddie had given her out of her basket and handed it back to him. “I’m sorry, young man. I can’t tell your fortune.”

Eddie tried to refuse the money, but she insisted, smiling sadly and repeating, “I’m sorry, I really am. But I can’t help you. I don’t know what you need to find, all I know is nothing on this earth will make you whole.”

She looked so genuinely upset that Eddie had to believe her, and instead of another joke he ended up returned her sad smile, admitting, “I never have felt whole, but I’ve no idea what I need either.”

Reaching out, she took his hand once more, this time holding it firmly between both of her own. Her hands were bent and knobby, but warm and surprisingly strong as she squeezed his. “But you will know,” she promised. “Someday, when you least expect it but need it most, your other half will find you. I swear.”

The crazy thing was, Eddie believed that too.

...

_Fifteen years later:_

Eddie was bored.

Usually, covering this sort of holistic fair would be as far from his beat as possible while still be technically the same profession, but now that he worked freelance, he occasionally needed to pick up a job here or there to pay the bills and keep his symbiote in chocolate.

 **Chocolate?** Venom asked, the thought alone enough to summon him from the back of Eddie’s mind.

Eddie smiled, but replied, “Not right now, darling. We have a couple more hours here, then we’ll go for chocolate.”

**Fine. But now would be better.**

“I hear you there,” Eddie agreed.

He decided that maybe he’d take one more turn around the room, and call it a day. It’s not like it would make much of a difference to the fluff piece he was going to have to write tonight.

He was walking down the row of fortune tellers when he glimpsed a tall black hat that looked vaguely familiar. It wasn’t until he got close enough to see the calligraphed sign, changed only sightly to now read that palm readings were twenty dollars rather than five, that he remembered the long ago date with Anne and a palm reading that had lingered long on his mind. 

Without meaning to, Eddie found himself standing next to the table and looking down into the same wrinkled face he last seen fifteen or more years ago. 

**Eddie? Are you okay? Your heart is beating too fast,** Venom asked, concern clear in his mind.

 _It’s okay,_ Eddie reassured him. _Just give me a minute._

Eddie was a little disappointed to find no hint of recognition in the old woman’s gaze, but her smile was still friendly as she greeted him, “Hello. Would you like a reading?”

Nodding dumbly in assent, Eddie pulled out a twenty and sat across from the palm reader, offering it and his hand for inspection.

The money disappeared into what could very well have been the same basket, then she focused on his hand.

She blinked, then moved her face closer to his palm until the tip of her nose was almost touching it. Sucking in a deep breath, she looked back up at him and positively beamed at him. “You found what you were look for!” 

“I did,” Eddie confessed, returning her grin. “And it was just like you said, I found him when I needed him most.”

“I am so pleased for the both of you. I have to say, I was worried about you that day and for a long time after it I’m honest. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.”

“I’m not that surprised. It was an… odd set of circumstances that brought us together.”

“No, it was fate. The universe craves symmetry.”

Tilting his head in acquiescence, Eddie agreed, “Maybe fate had a hand in it. Can you read our fortune for us today?”

She turned her eyes back to studying his hand, going silent for a long moment before saying a little hesitantly, “Only part of it. It is very long and full of more twists and branches than you can imagine. All I can say for sure is that no matter what happens, whenever you lose your other half, you always end up together with them again.”

Turning his hand over Eddie lightly gripped the old woman’s hand, feeling Venom pushing up from his palm to join in the clasp. Together the two of them tried to share some measure of the joy the woman’s fortune had brought them. 

“Thank you,” Eddie said, simple and utterly sincere. “That’s all we needed to know.”


End file.
